We are all Satoshi

New HBO Documentary Tries to Uncover Satoshi Nakamoto’s Secret Identity, Fails Poorly

Sixteen years ago, an individual or group under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin. Two years later, Satoshi vanished, and to this day, his identity remains a mystery. Nakamoto has shown complete indifference to both the fame and the vast wealth in Bitcoin he controls—over $60 billion, which has never been touched.

In the recent HBO documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery, directed by Cullen Hoback, the origins of Bitcoin are explored. Although the production is engaging and well-executed, it stumbles badly when it mistakenly identifies Peter Todd, a Canadian cryptographer and Bitcoin developer, as the elusive creator of Bitcoin.

HBO is not the first to fall into the trap of trying to unmask Satoshi Nakamoto. In 2014, Newsweek shone a spotlight on Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a Californian engineer whose only “fault” was sharing the same name as Bitcoin’s creator. Dorian endured several difficult months before finally dispelling this false claim.

In 2015, The New York Times suggested that Nick Szabo, one of Bitcoin’s conceptual pioneers, could be Nakamoto. However, Szabo was more of a theorist than a programmer. Likewise, Hal Finney, one of the most prominent cryptographers of recent decades and an early supporter of Bitcoin, was often linked to Nakamoto. Finney repeatedly denied the claim before his death in 2014.

The worst incident occurred in 2016, when the BBC was duped by Craig Wright, who falsely claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto. Backed by significant financial resources, Wright embarked on a years-long campaign to modify the Bitcoin protocol in an attempt to gain access to Nakamoto’s original Bitcoins. He also sought to block the publication and distribution of the original Bitcoin whitepaper and initiated legal action against those who opposed him. Fortunately, in June of this year, a UK court ruled that Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper, was not the person operating under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto between 2008 and 2011, and is not the creator of Bitcoin or its original software.

The identification of Peter Todd as Satoshi in the HBO documentary is equally flawed. This mistake could have been easily avoided if Hoback had taken the time to contact Todd and properly verify the weak evidence presented in the film. Instead, the director and producers appear to have neglected due diligence, using the Nakamoto identification as a marketing gimmick. This is not only shameful but also dangerous, as falsely linking Todd to the control of over $60 billion in Bitcoin could even endanger his life.

If the filmmakers had wanted to speculate, they could have at least relied on more credible, albeit unproven, theories—such as the one involving Len Sassaman. Sassaman was a brilliant cypherpunk who devoted his life to defending personal freedoms through cryptography. He worked as a developer on open-source privacy technologies like PGP and conducted academic research on peer-to-peer networks under the guidance of eCash inventor David Chaum. Tragically, Sassaman took his own life on July 3, 2011, after a long battle with depression and neurological disorders. His death coincided with Satoshi Nakamoto’s disappearance. In fact, just two months before Sassaman’s death, Satoshi sent his final message: ”I’ve moved on to other things and probably won’t be around in the future.” Anyway, the late Sassaman’s wife Meredith Patterson has denied in the past that he was the creator of Bitcoin.

Ultimately, Satoshi’s disappearance conveyed a clear message: Bitcoin belongs to everyone and should remain free from the influence of any one person. The absence of a central figure is a strength, ensuring that Bitcoin’s development is not subject to dirigism. As Bitcoin enthusiasts often say: ”We are all Satoshi.” Indeed, we are. Satoshi lives on in all who understand and embrace his brilliant creation: a digital asset that can be transferred but not duplicated, scarce in the digital realm like nothing before. This scarcity, akin to that of gold in nature, echoes the role gold has played throughout the history of civilization, currency, and finance—highlighting the disruptive relevance of its digital equivalent in today’s world and the future of money and finance.

To truly understand Bitcoin’s cypherpunk origins, rather than watching the HBO documentary, it’s much better to read The Genesis Book: The Story of the People and Projects That Inspired Bitcoin by Aaron van Wirdum, or watch The Digital Rush, a documentary that includes an interview to Peter not-Satoshi Todd, produced by Paolo Aralla’s Bapu Film and the Digital Gold Institute.